The Silent Project
by Jared Head
Summary: One line of code can change millions. Morales become irrelevant. Silence is golden, but yelling is platinum. Tell them exactly what they want to hear, and your chances of surviving will be better. Jorcy is in too deep and he is the only one that can save himself and an entire world.
1. The Silent Project

[I don't own Digimon]

 **The Silent Project**

 **A Travesty of Fiction**

 **By Jared Head**

* * *

 **Chapter 0**

 **The Silent Project**

It silently orbited above the Earth, reaching ever higher. Nearly a fifth of the way to the Moon, the open-secret continued its journey around the world uninhibited in the vacuum, the mesh collection antenna that dominated its structure exceeding a football field in size. Swallowing an entire hemisphere's signals for intelligence gathering purposes, the downlink to a secure satellite constellation in geosynchronous orbit eventually led to a further downlink to the secure headquarters of the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Virginia. After a quick verification that the signal and data received from it were on the planet, delivered somewhere in the vast network of data centers operated on behalf of the United States Government.

The retrieval of that data for analysis within the signals intelligence [SIGINT] occurred several hours after it's capture, as was per the standard timetable. The assigned intelligence worker was making very little of it, it was something far beyond the usual deciphering, it was beautiful, though, enough so to make him drop his jelly donut and coffee to the floor, much to the dismay of the IT department.

Flagged for extra analysis, it went to the best brains the NRO could throw at it. But even then, the bits just couldn't be surmised. Their origin seemed...otherworldly. The best technical experts that could be found within the country were immediately called upon. Those who did analyze the data found themselves astonished with their findings, which the Director of National Intelligence received an invitation to come to a meeting about.

Lt. Gen. Sigmund "Sig" Aiden, USAF, walked down the clean hallway in the NRO's headquarters flanked on either side by staff, one of them talking to him directly in trying to explain that the meeting he was about to attend could change everything. The other walked with just as much confidence, only she was silent, the assuring sound of her shoes, along with Aiden's continued down the corridor.

Armed guards stood at a door, and as Aiden and his staff turned the corner, the guards immediately moved to the sides to allow access. One of them saluted, "Good morning Lt. Gen. Aiden."

"Good morning," he replied, pulling two keycards out, while his two staff pulled out their own personal keycard. Approaching the reader, Aiden dropped the one held in his left hand first, blood-red in color, the reader beeping to indicate the card accepted. Now the personnel's turn, a blue card dropped in, with the reader indicating acceptance.

The door opened to a well-equipped conference room bustling full of aides and well-to-do government officials. Aiden, used to being given unusual assignments, worked his way among the chaos of the presentation being set up to a table where donuts and coffee were. It was early and caffeine was needed, even for a man of his standing.

"If everyone could please take a seat or get themselves settled in somewhere," the main presenter had to nearly yell above the commotion in the room, "Thank you all for coming here today and allowing yourself subjection to more security protocols above and beyond what we're accustom to. This is an unprecedented move because we have an unprecedented incident to discuss."

"Unprecedented?" Aiden skeptically said before taking a sip of his coffee, "What're we talking about here? New code from the Russians or Iranians?"

"No," Aiden's assistant handed him a folder, adjusting her glasses while opening her own folder, "A completely new kind of code altogether."

"We're not exactly sure what it builds, but every time we've attempted to crack it, it literally burns out the boards on the systems. Whatever it is requires computing power beyond what we're capable of delivering at the moment. We're hoping to have something in place sooner than later, but as you can imagine, our big issue now is the thermal loads."

"Hmmm," Aiden hummed, "I suppose this will need a few data centers?"

"We have enough out in Utah to make it happen," his assistant chimed in.

"Lt. Gen., it would be a fantastic waste of resources for us to just simply analyze and understand what we're looking at. We're suggesting that once that first round is complete, that we try to develop something out of it. We're not sure what exactly, but we have high confidence that sinking funding into this project will yield something helpful to us."

"Funding," Aiden pressed his hands together, knuckles popping loudly, "Funding funding funding. You do know that requires me to develop a line item. Line items are hard to keep under wraps. Impress me with what you know so far, and I'll see what I can do."

"Consider it a silent project," the presenter offered before turning back to begin, " _the_ silent project."

* * *

It had been 6 years to the day since the signal arrived. After a grueling 27 months of analysis, it was finally cracked: an access signal to a world, a digital world. Understanding the ramifications of the Silent Project, the United States Government did something they usually didn't: worked quickly and efficiently

It was found that the world was with mostly benign beings, many of them eager to help out the new faces they found. Allies made agreed with the ideals being set out: this Digital World could act as a processing system, enhancing the United States to push to a promised "50 exabytes [over 52 million terabytes] daily intake...not that we'd need that much really, no, really...", far more than any other electronic intelligence gathering system could even begin to reach.

Those who viewed the new faces as invaders were swiftly disposed of, their data being used to help drive the machine learning systems that accelerated what was known as **The Silent Project**.

An old facility right along the shore where the desert met the sea was quiet for now.

"Your bravery to volunteer for this is noted."

"I understand what I'm up against," Flamedramon exhaled, "But you've taught me well, I intend to return with him."

"I hope you do," the Flamedramon's teacher said as he walked off, the main door to the interior of the empty hanger retracting. Four years ago, only a Veemon, he had lost everything. Found, saved, taken in, trained and now tasked with the beginning of something to change history, hopefully for the better.

Flame began running off to the nearby cave the portal to the Real World would be, knowing that this would be the test of all of his skills.

* * *

"Tally ho on a portal opening," one of the many Commandramon in the center of operations for the multiple military organizations exploiting the Digital World yelled, "Cindy, we've got a signature on it, it's some frequent troublemakers."

Cindy was _the_ contractor, with an intimate knowledge of the Digital World, so much so that she is the prime asset to help quell most of the problems that came from within the society that needed to be kept in check.

"How quickly can you get out to it?" she asked.

"About 10 minutes."

"Have at it," she said, the Commandramon getting up from the station to exit the room and grab a squad.

Cindy grabbed at his arm before he made it through the doorway, "Captured alive, do you understand me? I want to know where these pests live."

"Understood!"

She sighed as he exited, good help was so hard to find.

* * *

The uneven surface of the sand dunes along the beach made for a slight challenge in maintaining the same pace, but Flame's lithe body was built for the long haul. He knew he wasn't too far away now, only a few more minutes. But his sensitive ears registered something, a slapping sound, the air being beaten.

It had to have been the military. Someone back at the base had opened the portal much too soon, and the military, with its excellent detection system, was now coming to investigate. A fight he did not want was likely to occur. The slapping faded away, and barely peeking over a sand dune, Flame recognized a helicopter hovering above...dropping several Commandramon right in front of the cave he needed to get into.

He brought a gauntleted claw up to his face, this was now harder than anticipated. The helicopter landed and powered down, everyone onboard exiting and heading quickly into the cave. The rummaging echo of equipment coming from inside the cave as Flame quietly approach down the last dune.

Carefully approaching the helicopter, intent clear, he moved to place himself flush against the side of the cave's opening, then picked up a rock and threw it into the cave.

"What was that!"

"Sounds like it came from the cave opening!"

Flame's focused moved to himself, heat building from his hands. Two Commandramon ran out of the cave's entrance.

"Knuckle fire!" he yelled, both hands sending out a blast of flame across the short distance to the two Commandramon. Spot on hitting them, they both had barely gotten half turned around before disappearing in a flash of heat and data.

Wasting no time, with some surprise still on his side, an aura of fire built up around Flame as he leaned into the vicious sprint, each step sliding along the loose rubble, "Flame Shield!"

The cave was completely consumed by fire, the interior lighting up as two surprised Commandramon attempted to run in the opposite direction only to have the fire burn them alive into data. A powerful wave of heat exited the front of the cave, simultaneously singeing the skin of the helicopter while blowing it over on its side.

Flame slowly walked back to the opening of the cave, just to assure himself that every Commandramon was gone. The helicopter had begun to burn, the smoke thickening. If there were any more forces in the area, they would notice, he needed to find that portal and sooner than later.

The soft glow rendered itself finally visible from the corner of his eyes, and just in time as the sounds of equipment clinking and clattering outside the cave began.

"Helicopter is out!" someone yelled, Flame doubling his efforts heading down a corridor, gaining brightness, losing room. The cave narrowing sharply, Flame's slim frame beginning to have to work against the natural surroundings to squeeze through. A particularly difficult arrangement of rock temporarily had him stuck.

"I've got him spotted!" he heard a voice, looking back over his shoulder to see the assault rifle of a Commandramon coming up, "M16 Assassin!"

Projectiles fired, cutting through the air, blasting the rock around Flame and barely missing him, sparks and hot rock flying into the dust it generated. He heard another voice with the sound of the assault rifle being jostled about, "Alive you idiot! Bring it back alive!"

"Alive?" Flame yelled.

"Alive!" the Commandramon yelled, approaching with the rifle up.

"Me or you?"

"You! Alive!" it yelled again.

"Flame Shield!" Flame yelled, fire once again engulfing the cave, the two Commandramon being ripped to data by the power of the fire, once again blowing a hot red plume out the front entrance of the cave. The rocks Flame was stuck between shattered from the heat, enough chunks leaving to allow him to finally fall through and to the portal, where some of the fire had accidentally made its way through.

"Alive," he yelled to the cave, "Me."

He took a deep breath and readied for his first time entering into the Real World, jumping into the portal with a sharp exhale.

* * *

Author's note: Here we go again y'all.


	2. June 9th

**Chapter 1**

 **June 9th**

* * *

The windows let a little sunlight in, dark and opaque. The cuckoo clock in the hall ticked away, the digital clock on his bedroom dresser silently noted the time passing.

7:24am [0724]

"Wake up sleepyhead!" Jet yelled from across the house, "I'm making breakfast! If you want something then get up, Uncle Jet's got work today."

Jorcy rolled over and pulled a pillow over his head in reply.

"Hey!" Jet yelled from the doorway of the room, "This is not a household where breakfast in bed occurs. Breakfast in bed is for closers, and you're on summer vacation young man."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're way too loud for your own good?" Jorcy flung a pillow across the room, Jet catching it effortlessly.

"Yes, all the time, especially teammates," he smiled, "Also, watch this."

Jet pressed his finger against the digital slider and moved it upwards, the windows moving from opaque to clear instantly, the room was flooded with light. Jorcy cried out in pain as his eyes were assaulted with the finest the Daystar could offer that early on a June morning in Los Angeles.

With a grunt and sigh, Jorcy left the warm comfort of the bed. Jet had already made his way back to the kitchen. On the way, Jorcy passed several photos showing Jet is various states of happiness, along with a few of Jorcy in middle and high school. The trophy case may have been the most impressive feature inside, with a multitude of racing wins and several championships.

"Just how many wins did you get again Jet?"

"45 wins in Formula 1, 7 wins in US Endurance and once at Le Mans. Looking at the trophy case again?"

"Yeah."

"Should note I won two F1 championships, one in the V10-era, another with the V8's," a dreamy look on his face as he thought back, "That's not easy to do you know."

Jorcy rolled his eyes, having heard it before, "Oh, I bet."

"Waffles!" Jet brought over a plate as Jorcy reached the table in the modern-style kitchen. The entire house was a mid-century modern design right on the sand of Newport Beach, "What's the plans for today?"

"Not sure," Jorcy said, syrup leaving the container, "I might just code a little bit today."

"So you wrap up your Masters in Computer Sciences and decide you want to start off the first day of summer by doing exactly what you did for the past 9 months?"

"No, computer sciences involves a lot more than just code. I'm sure driving a car professionally requires a lot more than just feet to push the pedals."

"Yeah you're right, good reflexes," Jet said taking a sip of orange juice, "And a strong liver for surviving sponsor functions."

Jorcy shot him a look as Jet cut into his waffle.

"...and the sexual wherewithal for surviving post-sponsor function functions."

"Thanks for the image," Jorcy gagged.

"It's not my fault!" Jet proclaimed, "I'm innocent, the sponsor yacht made me do it, and do it I did."

Jorcy threw his silverware down bringing a palm up to his face, "Gee look at the time when's work?"

"Now," Jet said, finishing his waffle and coffee cup.

"Whatcha' gonna take to work?"

"I don't know, I'm at the track today testing the new Mercedes supercoupe. What do you think would be a good one to take?"

"Why not the G-Wagon Merc you've got?"

"Jorcy," Jet put his cup down, "Showing up to a Mercedes test in a Mercedes is like showing up to a concert already wearing the band's shirt. Poor form and bad taste."

"I don't know then. The McLaren P1?"

"I bet you want to borrow that one huh?" Jet looked Jorcy straight into his eyes, "If you grab my McLaren P1, you'll be McLaren peeing blood. Understood?"

"Geez, alright."

"I've left you the Subaru BRZ and BMW M2 for use, I think I'll take the Dodge Viper today."

"Subtle, very subtle."

"Yep, V10 goodness."

"Well, I need some coffee."

"Oh, well, sorry about that. I used the last K-cup."

"Jeeeeeeeet," Jorcy wasn't pleased, "Where am I going to get my fix now? Can't code without caffeine."

"Well," Jet got up from the table to deposit his used dishes into the sink, "Someone should grab a car and head out to the nearest 'Bucks and grab themselves a nice drink and some more K-cups for us."

"Sounds like I've got something to do before I code."

"That you do," Jet smiled, "Enjoy the day! Uncle Jet's got a shakedown to do!"

The jingling of keys with the smooth sliding of a leather jacket and a howl of the Viper's engine being the final signal that Jet was gone for the day. The red coupe pulled out of the driveway and headed off to the racetrack.

Jorcy showered and then dressed for the day ahead. His decisions in the garage favored the BMW M2, as he fit a bit better in it. Grabbing the keys and sunglasses from the dresser in his room, he walked back down to the garage, slipped into the driver's seat and pushed the START button, the twin-turbo straight-6 engine releasing a properly Bavarian growl, slowly warming itself.

* * *

The phone's sharp electronic ring announced that someone in the Real World was calling the Digital World's command center. Cindy noticed it but awaited one of her Commandramon to answer, which one did.

"Human World calling!" it yelled out, reaching with the phone back over its shoulder towards Cindy.

"Give me that," she snatched it quickly away, "Cindy here…Oh really?...Well, we'll be on it...yes sir...absolutely, thank you," she hung up the phone, "Alright all, we just got our first successful trace on where those pests landed in the Real World. We're moving in, full force, Los Angeles."

She grabbed a jacket and made her way out of the command center's main room, walking down a hallway to a garage full of various vehicles. Small trucks, large SUV's, armored personnel carriers and even two tanks. She got into one of the SUV's back seats and checked the electronic systems in it, making sure that the transfer would place them back into the Real World with as much inconspicuous precision as possible. Cindy then put on a radio headset, along with preparing a camera with a long telephoto lens for observation.

"Radio check, radio check. All Commandramon please move into Human Mode, repeat, all Commandramon please move into Human Mode."

One of the breakthroughs of The Silent Project was finding a way to allow a Digimon to switch over into a human form, allowing for easy transfer of both friendlies and enemy combatants to the Real World for situations like the upcoming mission, interrogation or study. Cindy was too wrapped up in her world of preparation for the jump barely noticed the switchover of the Commandramon to their human forms. They all scattered throughout the garage, piling into the available SUV's, putting their small in-ear monitors on and preparing their weapons.

"We will be in a suburban area of Los Angeles, as such this will be a quiet mission. Rules of engagement are to not fire unless fired upon. We'd like to keep this as quiet as possible. Understood?"

"Copy."

"Alright, Control, initiate the transfer."

A whirlpool of energy appeared at the other end of the garage, and one by one, the SUV's slipped through from one world to another, arriving as quietly as they hoped a few blocks away from the house.

* * *

Author's note: Continuing the grand tradition of the English-dub by naming chapters after songs. Good grief.


	3. Should I Stay or Should I Go

Chapter 2

Should I Stay or Should I Go

* * *

The light-blue M2 downshifted with a pop from the exhaust and eased into the driveway, Jorcy and K-cups finally home. The short walk to the front door was shaded by an afternoon fog beginning to roll in off of the coast. It seemed a finger of the clouds began to move outwards towards the house, but Jorcy was too wrapped up in his venti green tea frap to notice. Caffeine is, after all, a priority.

Keys dropped on the kitchen counter, along with the box of K-Cups. Jorcy went back to the guest room and grabbed his laptop, slim and wicked fast, everything a student needs. Opened up and login in, the screen seemed off, not the usual background of two women programming ENIAC. In fact, his laptop was off completely.

"Oh come on. Not now," he pushed the power button repeatedly. Holding it down for several seconds and releasing did nothing. Finally, his laptop did something: sparking and fizzing with blue smoke. Startled, he threw the laptop across the guest bedroom and into a wall, where it shattered in two and continued smoking on the ground. Jorcy remembered the fire extinguisher was under the kitchen sink, and he quickly made his way through the house to get to it.

By the time he had returned, it was still only blue smoke, but Jorcy pulled the pin and gave it a blast from the extinguisher. His nature of solving the problem first instead of moping about rewarded him with the prevention of a potential fire. He exhaled loudly, wondering how he was going to explain this to Jet, knowing the worst of it was over...until the smoke detector for the garage went off.

"Oh...no…"

Once again running through the house, but now with a heavy fire extinguisher in his hands, Jorcy fell to the ground in the living room just before the door to the attached garage, the fire extinguisher luckily rolling along the ground right to the door he'd need to go through. Up on a knee, then standing, he walked over as he saw no smoke coming from the door. Grabbing the extinguisher in one hand, opening the door in the other, the sight he saw made him drop the extinguisher again.

A whirlpool of bright blue on the ceiling, the cars parked below it gently singed by flames nowhere to be found momentarily. Jorcy walked down the small stairway, mesmerized by the whirlpool. It whisped like a cloud in turbulent air. With no warning, a huge column of fire belched from the ceiling, Jorcy cringing backward expecting to be fully engulfed, but the loud thud and crunch of something landing on an expensive car with a burst of heat had him reopen his eyes. Smoldering on top of the McLaren P1 he had earlier been admonished not to mess with was a blue...thing, maybe 8ft in length. Fire licked from beneath its unconscious form, and Jorcy made his way back to the doorway where the fire extinguisher had been left. He quickly put out any of the flames he saw, not avoiding spraying the blue thing and coating it with a layer of powdery white flame retardant.

With his shock wearing off, Jorcy suddenly realized there was an 8-foot long lizard thing clad in some kind of armor sprawled out unconscious on top of a now wrecked multi-million dollar supercar.

If there was ever a time to call Jet and try to honestly explain the situation, that was now.

He ran out of the garage and shut the door, grabbed his phone from his pocket and with shaky hands ruined his first and second attempts at dialing Jet, but then got it right on his third attempt. Each ring felt like an eternity.

Meanwhile at the track, Jet was on his back beneath a car talking with an engineer.

"With the right camber we could probably get just a little more out of it, and when-" his sentence interrupted by his ringtone, The Clash's "Police On my Back"

"Go ahead and take it," the engineer slid out from under the car.

"Hello," Jet answered, not sliding out from under the car.

"JET," Jorcy yelled, "JET HELP."

"What? What is it Jorcy?" Jet now slid out from under the car.

"JET, HELP!"

"Oh hell Jorcy, I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on."

"My laptop broke-"

"-That's not worth screaming over, we can go buy a new one tonight if you really need to."

"Would you just shut up Jet and listen to me! And then a thing appeared in the garage, and it made a fire and then a blue thingy fell and landed on the McLaren and it caught fire but I put the fire out with the extinguisher and now there's this blue lizard thing in the garage and I have no idea what to do with it."

"Jorcy, you were talking way too fast, all I heard was 'lizard in the garage', just go get two cups, capture it and put it out in the garden. I got no beef with lizards."

"No, goddamnit Jet, this thing is like, huge, the lizard thing is longer than I am tall."

Jet was speechless, but only for a second.

"You didn't get into my weed did you?" Jet asked, he then very quickly turned to the engineers in the pit lane and covered the phone, "I don't do weed, just a joke with my nephew, Millennials you know," he smiled, before muttering under his breath back into the phone, "Because if you got into my weed without asking me first you are so grounded."

"No it's like a real thing, I'm not high Jet, I swear, just caffeinated."

"Is it wearing some kind of armor?" Jet asked, jogging his own memory.

"It is."

Jet paused, "I'm on my way home," and abruptly hung up.

"Jet, I don't know what to do, Jet...Jet?...oh hell," Jorcy was too nervous to think correctly. He had to go handle whatever this thing was in the garage, but the only weapon he could think of using was the fire extinguisher. It's worked in movies before, so it's totally going to work when he gives it a try.

Peeking through the door, the blue lizard was still passed out on the McLaren and still covered in the powder from earlier. Jorcy quietly and slowly approached it, fire extinguisher raised above his head, just in case it was faking being unconscious, he didn't want to take the risk of being caught off guard.

Its body was sleek and blue, with armor that had an obnoxious flame pattern on it, along with a single horn on its snout.

It's eye opened and with a flash, its closest hand grabbed the fire extinguisher and crushed it between the three long claws, the contents rupturing downward and encasing Jorcy is as thick a coat of the retardant as Flame himself was in. Just as quickly as it had been grabbed, the extinguisher was discarded, Flame swinging his body so that he first collected Jorcy with the side of his right gauntlet, knocking the human off balance. A smooth spin and Flame reached out with his right foot and connected with Jorcy's chest, kicking him backward in a puff of powder, bouncing off the front side panel of Jet's bright orange Mercedes G-Wagon leaving a dent and the wind knocked out of him. Flame continued his spin, using his tail to push off of the crumpled roof of the McLaren into a flip backward, where he landed and promptly took cover behind the McLaren with a smirk.

"I'm sure you'll reconsider trying to extinguish a Flame outside of your abilities."

"You can talk!" Jorcy clutched his chest, "And you have an attitude."

"Who are you? And why were you attacking me?"

"I'm thinking the same thing," Jorcy said, "Why did you ruin my uncle's garage?"

"Are you Jorcy?" Flame asked, peeking over the wreckage.

"Yes," Jorcy responded visibly shaking, "Wait no, maybe, I am maybe, maybe I'm not. What's it to you?"

"Yeah, you're Jorcy."

"Okay so maybe I am. What does it matter to you?"

"I'd like you to come back with me. You're very important to us."

"Hold up," Jorcy said, putting his hands up as he stood, steadily beginning to walk backward without his eyes leaving Flame. He reached the stairs and promptly fell down on them. He crawled back and shut the door behind him, closing the lock. Flame rolled his eyes.

Jorcy quickly found the closest closet and looked at all of the available items, finding Jet's golf bag full of clubs. He grabbed an iron and turned back to the door just in time to see a huge jet of flames engulf the wood.

"You're not gonna take me alive!" Jorcy yelled, raising the golf club the same way someone would hold a baseball bat, running full tilt at Flame. Seeing the opening, Flame simply stepped aside and let Jorcy fall through the former shards of the door, completely barrelling over the steps and falling onto the concrete floor of the garage.

"At this rate, I'm not so sure I will, of your own doing," Flame said, the last thing Jorcy heard before passing out.

* * *

"Alright, Carbon Unit," Cindy said into the headset, "Rules of engagement I mentioned earlier still apply: you will not fire unless fired upon. This operation is covert, understood?"

One by one different SUV's took their locations throughout the neighborhood with Cindy's specifically parking several houses down from the location they would be watching. Through the massive telephoto lens, Cindy began to take photos of the house itself. She was impressed with its look, whoever this belonged to had deep pockets. She wondered if this was the source of the pesky Digimon's funding. Nabbing that would most certainly net her a promotion.

It didn't take long for a humming sound to begin to be heard inside the SUV.

"Other units, do any of you hear a humming sound?"

"Negative," one replied.

"No, no humming here," another answered.

Cindy looked out the rear window to see a street sweeper making its way down the road towards them. At a steady, slow pace, it eventually passed them up. The small municipal pickup truck followed behind and the city worker parked it behind the SUV and stepped out. Pulling out a small notepad and scribbling on it, the $79 parking ticket was promptly placed under a windshield wiper.

"Oh come on!" Cindy yelled.

"Ya' had plenty of time to move!" the worker said walking back to his pickup truck.

Cindy brought a palm up to her face and winced in mental pain.

* * *

"Jorcy…" he heard a calm voice as he came back to his inhibitions, "Jorcy, are you back yet?"

The blue dragon thing was seated in a recliner across from the couch Jorcy was on. He must have let out a look of fear, as the blue dragon thing's posture changed.

"If I meant you harm, would I have put you back on a couch?"

"Fair enough," Jorcy said, sitting up to cough a little.

"I've never seen a human take a kick of mine in the chest and get back up."

"Well, I played rugby through high school and undergrad."

"Rugby?"

"It's a sport."

"Ah, a competition."

"Yeah, it's like football but without the pads."

"Football?"

"It's...nevermind."

"Jorcy, I hate to be short with you, but I'm going to need you to come back with me."

"I don't even know what to call you."

"Me?" it gestured a gauntlet to itself, "Of course, how impolite of myself. I'm Flamedramon."

"Flame."

"No, Flamedramon."

"I think I'll call you Flame, it's a bit easier."

"Fine, whatever."

"Well Flame, I don't know if I'm willing to just go somewhere on a whim you know."

"Did you know what you were going to do earlier today?" Flame asked, eyes narrowing with a cunning grin, "Did you?"

"No."

"What are you going to do for summer break?"

"I don't know yet, it's just the first day."

"Adventure?"

"Excuse me?"

"Adventure; do you like it?

"I guess, I mean, I like camping and all."

Flame laughed, "Oh, it'll be like camping alright, I'm sure of that."

"Look, I'm just a computer sciences student, okay?"

"Oh good, then I won't have to explain too much to you."

"About what?"

"The Digital World."

Jorcy paused with an intrigued look on his face, "A Digital World?"

"Quite. I'm proposing taking you to somewhere data has generated its own world. Much like the one we're currently in right now, but digital. I will only be taking you if you consent, so there is no pressure for you to go, but your help would be appreciated."

"Help?"

"Yes," Flame sighed, "Humans are not exactly allowing Digimon such as myself to live according to our own wishes. My kind who do not comply will be tortured and slaughtered by a group that calls themselves the Carbon Unit. It consists of humans telling Digimon to attack their fellows."

"Geez, that sounds awful."

"It is, which is why we want someone as smart and cunning as you Jorcy. We've seen some of the work you do and you think quite out of the box for a human. We think you would be a good candidate for the task at hand."

"Well," Jorcy paused as Flame looked him directly in the eye, "I suppose I could use this as a Doctoral thesis, maybe."

"So you'll come along?"

"Yes."

"So you consent to enter the Digital World to help us?"

"Yes."

"Great, but I need to ask you a favor," Flame's confidence slipped slightly, "Can you make a call for me? This armor doesn't exactly help with dialing phones."

* * *

"Carbon Unit, we have movement at the target house," Cindy's tone remaining calm. Through the telephoto lens she could see someone in the mid-20's walking the front path out to the sports car parked in the driveway. The garage door opened and after he was in the car, it pulled into the garage, the door rolling back down.

"Standby all units, we may have to run mobile. Rules of engagement for movement stand the same. Standby all units."

* * *

The garage door rolled back down to its closed position and Jorcy pressed the stop button in the M2.

Flame was in the doorway of the garage and stepped down the stairs as Jorcy exited the car and walked over to open the passenger door, "I apologize for attacking you earlier."

"No need to," Jorcy waved his hand, "If you're going to apologize to anyone, it's going to have to be Jet for completely wrecking his McLaren."

"Yeah, sorry about that, the portals between worlds don't exactly allow for ease of entry."

"That's fine," Jorcy scratched at the back of his head, "My current concern is how I'm going to fit all eight-foot of you into this tiny little BMW."

"Oh, it's no problem," Flame said, walking around and examining the inside, "I have an idea."

With his left gauntlet, he stabbed into the passenger's seat and pulled it right off of the rail it was attached to. He flung it to the other side of the garage, smashing a hole in the drywall. Jorcy was aghast.

"Hey you fucker, this is a sixty-thousand dollar car, you can't just rip and throw whatever you want out of it!"

"Sorry, but I have a certain way of dealing with small spaces."

"That doesn't mean you can just come along and wreck something that belongs to someone."

"Look," Flame said, wiggling his way into the rear seat to see if his legs would fit in the now wide open front passenger space, "Are we going to go or not?"

"I take back everything I said earlier, now I want an apology."

"Oh, cmon Jorcy don't be so petty."

"Petty!" Jorcy raised a fist and hit Flame in the nose.

"I suppose I might've deserved that."

"There's plenty more where that came from, you asshole."

"Fair enough."

Jorcy slammed the door, not caring if Flame was in position or not.

"Ow!" he heard muffled through the door, "My knee."

Jorcy pointed over to the discarded passenger seat as he walked over to the driver's side of the BMW, "Ow!" he yelled, "My wallet!"

Begrudgingly starting the car, he pushed the garage door button in the BMW and it began to roll up, allowing him to see outside that the fog had thickened. Reverse gear and the BMW pulled out, which Jorcy then pressed the garage door button once again to allow it to roll down. Carefully easing out of the driveway, he turned the wheel and pressed the clutch in, shifting to first gear and then driving away.

"Where am I going?"

"Check your phone," Flame said.

To Jorcy's surprise, the navigation app was already open. He pushed a button on the dash, and the information was immediately transferred to the navigation system on the recessed LCD screen in the middle of the dash.

5 miles. 10 minutes. Just a typical Monday afternoon drive he thought.

"How long am I going to be gone for?"

"Well, I didn't ask you to pack did I?"

"That's what I'm concerned about, if I should've packed."

"Consider it a day trip."

The maze of the suburban neighborhood was dealt with accordingly. Coming to a light, the navigation bonged, letting Jorcy know he was approaching a right turn. It would take him out onto the Pacific Coast Highway, right along the beach. A pleasant drive were it not for the fog.

"Really weird to have fog like this."

"It's my fault," Flame said with a smirk. The Digimon looked into the rear mirror and noticed the two black SUV's, and his smirk immediately turned into a frown, "We're being followed," he said, looking over his shoulder.

"What?" Jorcy asked, looking in his side mirrors.

"Two black SUV's behind us, we're being followed."

"What should I do?"

"Lose them."

"How?"

"Drive the car?" Flame sarcastically replied lifting both gauntlets up at the obvious solution. Jorcy looked up to see a red light and stepped on the brakes, "This is no time to stop Jorcy."

"I'm gonna wait for the light to turn green."

"Jorcy," Flame said with urgency in his voice, "You're going to force me to do something I really don't want to do."

"Just, hang on a second Flame. Maybe we can reason with them."

"Goddamnit Jorcy, don't make me do this."

"Do what?"

With the SUV's bearing down on the BMW, Flame didn't hesitate to kick the passenger door clean off its hinges. Jorcy reacted with shock, "Flame!" he yelled now even more angry as the blue Digimon exited the car.

"Holy shit!" Cindy exclaimed over the radio, "Hang back, hang back! Cover is blown! We have a Flamedramon, repeat, cover blown and Flamedramon with! Delta, Bravo, stop immediately and reverse!"

The two SUV's slammed on their brakes, but moving at too fast a speed to stop in time, Flame took on the one on his side of the car, lowering his stance and grabbing on to the front bumper with his two gauntlets, lifting the SUV overhead and throwing it a few extra feet above the intersection.

"Knuckle fire!" he yelled, a blast of red flame exiting his extended gauntlet and detonating the SUV, the explosion shaking the traffic lights. Flaming debris rained down on the second SUV, skidding past and rolling onto its side, just barely missing the parked BMW.

"Holy shit!" Jorcy yelled.

"Feel like driving now?" Flame asked as he got back into the car.

The sound of bullets hitting the asphalt around the car came first, then the sound of assault rifles at full song.

"Yeah, outta' here!" Jorcy said. He revved the engine, dumped the clutch, cylinders pumped, fuel burned, transmission connected, flywheel spun, tires screeched, and off the M2 roared. In Jorcy's mind, speed was going to be the key. He only had 2 miles left, and he knew the SUV's wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Return fire!" Cindy yelled over the headset, "Return fire goddamnit, light that little car up!"

To the surprise of both Jorcy and Flame, the SUV's were somehow able to keep up a good pace with the BMW.

"How're they doing that?" Jorcy glanced up in the rearview mirror.

"I have no idea."

Jorcy looked at his side mirror as he turned the wheel to swerve around a slower car. Quickly downshifting to get back under control, he saw another SUV collide with the car he had nearly just hit, sliding sideways and rolling along the road.

"Keep it up!" Flame said, the wind roaring in through the gaping hole where the passenger door used to be.

The loud thump let Jorcy know an SUV hit the back of the BMW, rear wheels momentarily lifting off the road and coming back down in a cloud of tire smoke. He mistakenly kept his foot down on the accelerator, the BMW now spinning out of control as it approached a busy intersection. Seeing little options, Flame pulled himself forward against the centrifugal force and aimed out of the car, "Flame Shield!"

The mass of fire engulfed the SUV, with its windows down, flame licking inside and burning those exposed to it into raw data. A scream and a shout, then silence from the SUV as it continued through the intersection at full speed with no one inside. It plowed head-on into the intersection light, the BMW coming to a stop just short of where the light fell.

"Floor it!" Cindy yelled, the last SUV of the group now in pursuit. The driver obeyed her command and threw caution to the wind.

"Alright Jorcy, let's get moving again, only one more to contend with," Flame gasped for air.

"Hang tight…timing…"

"Timing? Jorcy, don't make me get out of this thing again."

"Do you trust me?"

Flame was silent, but then with the full weight of his affirmation, "Absolutely."

"Then watch this."

"Uh," Flame grunted, the SUV bearing down on them, "Bad things usually happen after someone says 'Watch this'."

"Ram them," Cindy said, taking the headphones off of her head and getting into the back seat, buckling herself in tight, "Ram them at full speed."

"Engaging," the driver said.

Jorcy revved the engine on the BMW again, hanging his foot on the light clutch, waiting for the right moment, "C'mon!"

Dumping the clutch again, the M2 screamed forward, clearing the path of the SUV by inches as it cruised past and into the overturned SUV, flipping to one side and sliding a considerable distance.

1 mile. 2 minutes.

Jorcy laughed maniacally, "That's what you get when you mess with the M2."

Flame leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm sure a lot of people saw that."

"Oh yeah, that'll probably make the news, but we won't be around, right?"

"Right."

The navigation system bonged again, a left turn onto a bridge over the channel. The green suspension bridge was engulfed in a thick fog, but a bright light appeared to be emanating from the middle of the span.

"That's our ticket out of here!" Flame happily shouted over the wind noise.

Jorcy dropped a gear and floored it.

"Not so fast!"

"Who cares!" Jorcy smiled back, but Flame was not returning the smile.

It looked incredibly similar to the whirlpool of energy that had appeared in the garage, just much larger. With a violent shudder, the BMW disappeared into the portal.

On the other end of the bridge, a Dodge Viper howled through the gears, Jet behind the wheel and determined to catch the portal before it closed.

"Don't you close on me," he pushed his foot, already to the floor, harder against the pedal. But it was a wasted effort, just as he was about to enter in, the portal whisked away into the fog, and the Viper blasted through, continuing across the bridge well above 100mph. Jet eased up slightly and tapped the brakes, slowing to a crawl and pulling over into the emergency shoulder. He opened the glove box and pulled out a digivice.

"Guess I'm gonna' have to make my own."

* * *

Author's note: A little action, finally.


End file.
